I thought I would write a short post with some advice on how ear training can be helpful for those who are preparing for auditions, a common enough event. There's really three pieces of advise I can offer that will make a world of difference when the big day comes and you've got to show others that you've got what it takes.
The first part is to be able to play your piece from front to back, in time, as soon as possible. This means setting your metronome slow slow slow. A common way for people to practice is to work on the piece in sections, which is necessary for polishing those little parts that need extra work, but often they wait to long to put the whole piece together, and then stumble into problems with awkward transitions after it's way too late. Save your self the headache, practice like you perform, play entire pieces.
The second thing to do is to learn how to sing the piece. Humming of whistling along is one matter, but that's not what I mean. It's not even important that you be able to sing the piece in time, or up to speed. What's more important is that you really know what each interval is, where the melody notes are in relationship to the harmony, and exactly how all the chords are stacked. It can be very time consuming, but there is really no better way to know a selection of music inside and out. This exercise can be really helpful to prevent some developmental problems, especially in musicians who do a lot of reading, but little improvising. I'm sure you're all well acquainted with the tone deaf pianist, someone who can play beautifully, but is too used to being seated at a machine that simply produces the right pitches for them. This exercise solves that type of problem, by taking your music making implement out of your hands, and then really concentrating on the content of the music.
The third thing to do would to be able to recite your piece simply as a series of intervals. For example, if you were learning how to play "Oh Christmas Tree", you would say "perfect fourth, unison, unison, major second, major second, unison, unison, unison, major second, major second, minor second, tritone, minor third, major second, unison, unison." Once you had that figured out, you would have the intervallic content known, and so it would be no problem to go through the whole thing and name one note after another: "g, c, c, c, d, e, e, e, d, e, f, b, d, c, c, c". Want to learn you piece in another key? No sweat, you've got everything you need and you're ready to reproduce the song and transpose from memory. Now you're really learning "Oh Christmas Tree" inside and out. In the key of D Major: a, d, d, d, e, f#, f#, f#, e, f#, g, c#, e, d, d, d. The effectiveness of this method is altered by the length of your selection however; it might not be to useful too learn your Chopin nocturne in another key, but give it a try and tell me what you think.
Keep practicing, and good luck!
